Giveaway Event Etiquette for Bloggers

Here on Measuring Flower, I often host or co-host giveaway events. Some are group giveaways where every participant pitches in monetarily to provide a large prize like an iPad. Others are giveaway hops where each participant obtains a sponsor along the event’s theme then hosts a giveaway on their own website and links to the other participating websites.

These events are a LOT of fun and they really help to boost the page views and increase the social media presence of each blogger involved. However, because there are those who will take advantage of these events by signing up then failing to authentically participate just so they can get all the benefits with none of the work, each of these events must have a set of rules. These rules are created to ensure that the event is successful, fun, and fair for everyone involved.

For the host(s) or co-host(s) of  any event (mine or any other blogger’s), these events are a TON of work. The host has to design promotional images (such as a button) or buy them, write up the rules, seek bloggers, advertise that they’re seeking bloggers, possibly pitch grand prize sponsor(s), email everyone to remind them of the event, prepare landing pages for follow links (like Twitter follow buttons and what not) or prepare them for someone else to post, write up the sample post to make it easy for all participants (not all bloggers do this, but many do to make it as easy as physically possible for the participants), email everyone again, check everyone’s blog to make sure they posted, remind those who didn’t post, check again, change the links in the linky list to lead directly to each blogger’s giveaway (in a giveaway hop), remind those who didn’t post yet again, check the delinquent blogs again, delete the blogs in a giveaway hop who say they couldn’t participate after all or who have been delinquent, blacklist delinquent blogs (meaning the host has  to put forth the extra effort to keep track of the blacklisted ones in future events), email the delinquent blogs to let them know they’ve been blacklisted (often receiving a nasty response in return which causes stress and grief), promote the event (often monetarily), promote again, pick a winner and make sure they didn’t cheat (especially difficult and time consuming in a group giveaway like for an iPad), and so on and so forth. Whew…and that’s not all!

So, what can YOU do to make running an event as painless and stress free as possible for your host or co-host that’s working so hard to make this event a success? Well, you can be polite, kind, honest, and do your best to commit to your fullest when you sign up. Here are some other things you can do:

1. Check your spam box to make sure your host’s emails aren’t dumping there. If they are, add their email address to your address book to prevent this from happening again.
2. If you find you are unable to participate for any reason (it happens), email your host to let them know about this as soon as you know. No need to give excuses unless you must. Whether you can’t participate because your forgot, you had a family emergency, or your sponsor didn’t come through, just let them know you can’t participate.
3. When emailing your host, make sure to mention what blog you represent. Your host is probably corresponding with several bloggers at once, so they’ll often get confused. And it’s a big pain to take your email and try to figure out which blog you’re with by going to the linky list or document where you signed up (especially if your email has nothing to do with your blog’s title or you’re emailing from a different email than you signed up with).
4. If your host is asking you to report your link, report it as soon as you can. There are ways to obtain your posts’ link before it’s published.
5. If you forget to post on time (that happens, too!), be honest and let your host know then get your post up as soon as possible.
6. Promote the event by shouting it out on your social networks and groups, by linking up on giveaway linkies, and so on. Your host is doing a lot of work to help you out by promoting it, so promote it also to help out your host, yourself, and the other bloggers involved.
7. If you get blacklisted by mistake (or your host makes any mistake), please don’t shoot back a nasty email. Tell your host it was a mistake and try to resolve things kindly. Most event hosts are very kind people and are totally on your side. Trust me, hosts don’t WANT to blacklist people or make them angry–that’s fewer people to participate in the next event which, in turn, makes more work for the host. But be honest; many hosts will track their event-related emails to ensure you’ve seen it.
8. Tell your host if anything in the event is askew. For example, the link in the linky is wrong, someone has a purchase product option in their giveaway (which is illegal), you can’t find someone’s post for the event (your host may have missed this, especially in larger participation events), and so on. Do this privately in an email, not publicly on a social network, to also show respect for the other bloggers and to prevent embarrassing them (everyone makes mistakes).
9. If another participant is struggling and expressed their struggles on Facebook or wherever and you know the answer, try to help them out instead of leaving it for the host. This decreases the host’s work load and also gives you some gold stars along the way.
10. Be prompt and obey the rules. If your host can depend on you to get your post up on time and obey all the rules (including sticking through and through with the event’s theme), trust me, they appreciate it more than you know. I’ll look for on-top-of-it people like this as possible co-hosts for my events in the future.